Rolling bearings are common mechanical elements that are used in many different applications. There are different kinds of rolling bearings, which are designed to fulfill different requirements. Depending on the conditions of a specific application, i.e. load level, rotation speed, temperature etc., there are different kinds of suitable rolling bearings. One common bearing type is spherical roller bearing (SRB). This bearing is designed to accommodate large radial loads and axial loads, but also it is designed to be able to accommodate shaft deflections, i.e. the bearing rings are able to be relatively misaligned. Thus, this bearing is especially suitable for more demanding industrial applications, such as machines in pulp & paper industry, wind turbines etc.
The spherical roller bearings present different designs. There are for instance bearings with and without flanges on the inner ring. The flanges can function as a guiding flange for the roller elements and also they can function as a retaining flange used to prevent rollers from falling out from the bearing during e.g. operation and transportation. An example of a prior art spherical roller bearing comprising inner ring flanges can be seen in FIG. 5, which will be further described below.